Stay Over Days in Emerald Bay

—Blogpost written by Bob

Mar 21 thru Mar 24

As we continue our "sheltering in place" here in Emerald Bay Marina on Great Exuma Island in the Bahamas, I have noticed that for my last two blogposts, email notifications to my subscribers were not sent.  This is something that is usually done automatically by Google but for some reason it has failed lately. (However, it’s still working on my wife’s blog.)  I have notified Google of the problem and lots of other bloggers have complained about the same issue—so, I’m hoping it gets fixed soon. In the meantime, I may be writing to an audience of one—me.  (On Monday I checked with my sister in Pennsylvania by email and she is getting them regularly and I still have about two dozen views a day according to my blog's stats--so, I'm not sure what is going on.)

Saturday, March 21

As I started our water maker in the late morning, I checked the condition of the primary filter (it looked good) and noticed that we had just over 300 hours of operation on the water maker. So, we must have produced about 450 gallons of fresh water so far. I have been running it for six or seven hours on most days, even here in this marina where the clarity of the water is excellent. The Katydyn 40E has served us well on this trip!

Lola relaxes on the dining table in the air 
conditioning during the afternoon.

Timing our return to the U.S. is something I found myself thinking about a lot lately. (I just read where the Florida Keys are now closed to everyone except residents—they are controlling incoming car traffic.) Currently, I’m thinking of leaving this marina (Emerald Bay Marina on Great Exuma) in mid-April and taking our time going back to the U.S., hoping to arrive in Fort Pierce around mid-May. From Fort Pierce we will travel to Vero Beach (about 4 hours away) where we will stay for a couple weeks on a mooring. We’ll see how this plan comes together...

One of the most impressive vocal talents that I’ve discovered on YouTube lately is Kina Grannis. She is 34 years old and from Mission-Viejo, CA. I really like her rendition of “What a Wonderful World” which can be found at this link.

Kina Grannis is an outstanding young 
singer-songwriter!

Sunday, March 22

I had a setback with my back problem last night because of the position in which I slept--I couldn't find a comfortable position.  Consequently, I didn't sleep very well and my back pain has returned today.  Therefore, this will be a very short posting for today.

I read Rachael Maddow's biography today.  
I knew she was smart but I didn't
realize that she was a
Rhodes Scholar.

We learned today that the nearby Sandals Resort and Grand Isle Resort are both now closed due to coronavirus precautions--their restaurants and beaches are closed.  Most of the people that work in this marina are now wearing latex gloves (at least they were today). 

As of today, there were 31,019 cases of coronavirus in the U.S (most in NY state) and at least 389 people have died (1.25% running fatality rate).  It's very sad.  While I feel very safe here in terms of contracting the coronavirus, I feel estranged from home.

Monday, March 23

Our seemingly endless waiting game (sheltering in place) continued here in Emerald Bay Marina as the Coronavirus pandemic raged in some of the eastern states. Our safety (and that of our fellow citizens in the U.S.) is our biggest concern at the moment. 

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There is absolutely no leadership on the coronavirus issue out of the White House!  The lockdown should be in effect everyone across the nation except for people who produce essential goods like food, pharmaceuticals, etc.--not wait until a certain number of infectious cases show up in each state before locking down that state!  (It is important to understand that this virus spreads before symptoms show up!)  I learned today from Reuters that several months before the coronavirus pandemic began, the Trump administration eliminated a key American public health position in Beijing intended to help detect disease outbreaks in China.  (Of course, you will never hear this reported if you get your only news reports from FOX.)  

There are 40,069 cases of coronavirus in the U.S. as of today and 472 have died (1.1% running fatality rate)--the number of coronavirus cases has increased by 29% since yesterday while the deaths have increased by 21%!

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Of particular interest to us is the the marinas in southern Florida have been shutdown. We count on stopping at a marina in southern Florida (usually at Vero Beach) to provision for our trip up the ICW. (I just heard back from the harbormaster at Vero Beach City Marina vis email that they are open and business is as usual.) (This winter season has cost us much more than usual because of the extensive stay in this marina but that is only a minor concern to us right now.) I recently found out through an email that Titusville Marina on the central east coast of Florida is currently open for business.  For me, the biggest problem is not knowing when and how the entire COVID-19 matter is going to end.  If there was a known ending, we could enjoy the waiting more, particularly here in the Bahamas.  We tend to spend most of our days lately on the boat, cooking, reading, and eating—not exactly a healthy environment for our waistlines.

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My back is feeling much better this morning and I got a good sound sleep last night with the easterly cool breeze blowing through the boat all night long.  It seemed like the “very high wind” conditions that plagued us in February and into early-March have finally stopped for the season (hopefully).

Sugar-free brownies right out
of the oven!  I wish you
could smell them.

Maggie made (sugar-free) brownies early this afternoon (shown above).  There must be some little critter that lives in our oven--the oven critter has a foot the size of a human finger tip.  Whenever Maggie makes brownies, the little oven critter walks all over them.

We arranged for a rental car this Wednesday to do some grocery shopping but we're not sure a rental car will be available at this point.

I was planning on taking a shower today but I think I will postpone it until tomorrow.  (After all, I don't small like a dead fish yet.)

Tuesday, March 24

Wow! I have NO back pain this morning! What a welcome life improvement!  I slept with my back brace on the last two nights—this prevented me from moving in ways that hurt my back while sleeping. This allowed a good night’s sleep and a pain-free next day.  (My back pain had certainly negatively affected my attitude over the past seven to ten days.)

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According to CNN, yesterday marked the fifth day that no new cases of Coronavirus appeared in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province in China, where the disease began—this was great news!  China controlled the disease by a complete lockdown. This should have been done here in the U.S. in early January before cases started showing up, instead of ignoring it and calling it “another Democratic hoax.” 

(By the way, the statistics I referenced earlier in this blog were the data for the previous day since they were obtained first thing in the AM.) 

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There was very little wind outside this morning, as the temperature remained relatively cool.  Days like this here in the Bahamas usually result in unwelcome visits from “no-see-ums”—they can’t fly in 10 to 15 knots of wind.  Unless the wind picks up by the afternoon we may opt to close the boat up and use our onboard A/C today.  (Later in the day, the southerly wind was only blowing at 5 to 7 knots and we DID close up the boat and used our onboard A/C.)

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 With only four cases of the Coronavirus in Nassau (more than 100 miles away by water) restrictions on our movement on this rather remote out island have been significantly tightened in just the past day.  At 10:30 AM we found out that there are no more rental cars available because of Coronavirus concerns—so, our planned trip to the grocery store tomorrow had to be cancelled.  Also, the management of this marina is not allowing any more boats to come in and Exuma Markets (the largest grocery store on this island) is only accepting orders that are emailed in—the pre-ordered groceries will be boxed up by them for pick up by the customer outside the store.  A couple of boats got together orders for groceries and the marina agreed to have them picked up for us. 

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Note to self: From now on, carry at least a case of canned ground beef or similar canned meat products onboard and rotate them. (We had just five cans of ground beef onboard as of today.)

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I decided to change the water maker’s primary filter at the end of today’s run—it was last changed on February 14, about 40 days ago and it has operated for six to eight hours on most of those 40 days. While the filter didn’t look dirty from outside the clear plastic housing, it was clearly yellowed.

This is the upper end of the old filter.
Clearly it had "yellowed" over
the past 6 weeks of use.

I hope everyone back home is successfully dealing with this pandemic situation and everyone stays safe and healthy!


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